SME biz sentiment up for 2nd month for Sept. but still below par
Korean smaller companies' business outlook rose for the second consecutive month for September but still remains below par, a poll showed Sunday. The survey of 3,060 small and midsized enterprises (SMEs) said the small business health index (SBHI) came to 84.8 for next month, up 4.8 points from August, according to the Korea Federation of SMEs. The index rose for two straight months since it…
Korean smaller companies' business outlook improved for the second straight month in September, but the sentiment remains below average, according to a recent poll. The Korea Federation of SMEs conducted a survey of 3,060 small and midsized enterprises (SMEs) and found that the small business health index (SBHI) for September stood at 84.8, an increase of 4.8 points from the previous month in August, when it was 80.
The index has been rising for two consecutive months, climbing from 78.2 in August. A score below 100 indicates that pessimists outnumber optimists.
The manufacturing sector's SBHI for September was 87.1, a 7-point increase from the previous month. Nonmanufacturing companies' SBHI rose by 3.7 points to 83.7. Over 50 percent of the respondents cited sluggish sales as the biggest challenge to their management. Rising raw material costs were cited by 41 percent of the respondents, while cutthroat competition accounted for 31.4 percent.
High labor costs were another concern for 27.8 percent of the respondents. The average capacity utilization rate of manufacturing SMEs in July was 75.2 percent, a 0.7 percentage point decrease from the previous month.
Written by urgent.news from The Korea Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
